(MEL) is it possible to expand frameLayout of Extra Attributes?

[absoluteKelvin]

Hi all, just wanted to ask if there is a way to expand the extra attributes frameLayout in the attribute editor through Mel?

[zewt]

Not sure, but Extra Attributes is just the fallback for things that aren't in a node's AE layout.  Usually if you're making a real layout, Extra Attributes becomes empty or goes away entirely, since you put everything in more meaningful groups.  If you're trying to modify it in one of your own AE templates, it's created by calling "editorTemplate -addExtraControls", so you might be able to find the section that it adds.  I don't know of any way to modify it globally, though (if that's what you're trying to do).

[absoluteKelvin]

im currently using the network node as just a holder for my custom attributes, because i found out that it doesn't limit the file format when it saves. Im writing some tool for creating custom primitives. It doesnt uses any API.  And since I dont really want to overwrite the original AETemplate. I was hoping there was a way to grab the framelayout name and just expand the frame.

[absoluteKelvin]

after some heaving digging. I figured out the main path of the UI.

layout -q -ca AttributeEditor|MainAttributeEditorLayout|formLayout118|AEmenuBarLayout|AErootLayout|AEStackLayout|AErootLayoutPane|AEbaseFormLayout|AEcontrolFormLayout;

with this code you can query all the current attribute editor layouts active on selected object. Then you can keep divining deeper to find the frameLayout that corresponds to extra attributes. This is not very elegant way of getting the frameLayout name.

[zewt]

You wouldn't want to hardcode that.  It won't always be the same, especially "formLayout118" which is an arbitrary sequence number.  I really wouldn't recommend trying to edit the AE outside of an AE template, it's just going to cause weird problems since that's not how it's meant to be edited.